Terrible twos / threenager support thread

[Belleende]

Hello all,

Thought I would start this and see where is goes. I am mum to 2 DDS. One 7 weeks and one 2.5. currently on mat leave.

My DD1 has always been a lively high energy kid, but has lately been incredibly challenging. Last week it took me 1.5 hours to get her into her clothes and out the door. I started a thread here and got great support.

There are lots of separate threads with good advice on, but I thought it might be helpful to have a go to place for help support and advice on dealing with the daily challenges of toddler wrangling.

My current challenges include, how to get dressed without a drama, how to manage transitions without meltdowns, to nap or not to nap, how to maintain sanity when toddler asks for a bath and then refuses to get in it, how to keep it light and playful when you are feeling just short of murderous.

Say howdy if you think this might be useful and we can go from there.

nanny that did make me chuckle about your daughter weeing on 6 pairs of pants! These kids! We've halted the potty training too now - demanding nappy and refusing outright to sit on potty, we have enough battles to deal with without adding toilet issues into the mix.

We had a stand off at lunch time when DD was messing round with her lunch, I told her to put it on her plate if she didn't want it so she threw it across the room. She's just woken from her nap in a vile mood. Jolly good.

We haven't even thought about potty training yet. I want to run away and hide at the very idea 😱

Soft play hell for us too today - sleeting down here and two stroppy toddlers who don't like rain - within 30 seconds I regretted the decision not to make them go out in it! Managed an hour before we had to go. I consoled myself with some Milky Way magic stars, it was that or gnaw my ears off at the noise level...

Childminder is taking all of half term off. Nooooooooooooooooo.

Oh no, do you have enough leave to take from work or will family help?

I am on mat leave so will have 12 days with no cover ( she only goes 2 days per week). I might go and see my sister yet

Can I join?

2.7 year old DD, has started waking at 5am yawn I’m not a morning person.

She has a dummy at night for medical reasons but it’s causing so many problems I’m so tempted to ditch it. She won’t give it up in the morning, if we take it off her she hits kicks or bites. Used to just send her into Nursery with it so she could have it for naptime but even they’re struggling to get it off her and the other children are getting possessive with theirs too. It’s also starting to affect her speech, so I want the dummy gone but her consultant won’t be happy as it’s helping her at night

She’s usually an angel, sleeps all night and is great fun but right now I’d sell her to a stranger.

Welcome to the 5am club. It sucks. We have tried everything, including dropping her nap completely, nothing has made the slightest difference. Yeah

Aaaarrggghhhh 5am 😱😱 hope you are having plenty of strong to cope!

Both DC asleep by 8.30 last night. DS1 wanted milk at 4.30am and up properly from 6.30. DS2 wanted milk at 2.20 and 5.30 and is still asleep, clearly having worn himself out...

Yep, caffeine needed here too!

Can't have caffeine due to a heart condition which caffeine makes worse, same for wine . DH is at work so all on my own.

I thought of this thread yesterday morning - 7.30am on a Sunday and toddler and I were doing pretend dancing in the living room to (inevitably) the songs from Frozen. I'm a fan of this activity because it doesn't involve him pestering his baby brother and I live in hope that it might help with burning off his neverending energy.
However..... I glanced out of the living room window to see a dog walker outside, and realised that toddler was too small to be visible so dog walker would just have seen me doing completely rubbish pretend ballet on my own. Hmmm.

LOL buffy 😂

I always talked to my DC when they were in the buggy in front of me - nothing exciting, just a running commentary on what we could see. I was in Boots one day chatting away about a toy display when I realised I didn't have the buggy, DP had taken them to look at something else. I must have looked very strange in my defence I was very sleep deprived at the time...

Has anyone else done the thing when you start juggling about when a baby cries, even when it's not your baby and you have no baby with you to jiggle?

I'm sure people must think I'm desperate for the loo or something

Buffy .

Spud Yes! I look so silly.

Anyone elses toddler a bit odd?

Mine is currently sat playing peekaboo with a blanket

Peekaboo is normal...

Unless he is "booing" a different blanket to the one he is hiding behind

Mine kept dropping apricots into a random box. Told him not to so he took my hand and made me touch the apricot then let it fall so it was ME that dropped it. He's so smart haha.
Then he rolled it off his head into the box. Repeatedly. Pointed out to visiting HV that he was an odd child. She said rolling fruit off head into box is normal for 2 year olds. I suggested all of them were therefore odd. All the fun of being 2 is being odd lol

Sleeping She was peekabooing to the blanket, covering her eyes and saying "boo" to it, then laughing hysterically.

I was being sarcastic about her being a bit odd, I know it's a toddler thing

Nah that is odd. Cute. But odd

And from your reply I wonder if mine came across more grumpy aggressive than intended. It really wasn't. Mine's a custard donut in a box of jam donuts too

It's ok we're all sleep deprived here!

Earlier today, DS was pressing the noise button on his Portly Pig book, which was on the kitchen table, then running into the living room and spinning round and round giggling, until the oinking stopped. Then repeating. Over and over and over....

Later on, he took great umbrage at the basking shark episode of Sarah and Duck. It really scared him! I do not know why.

Toddlers are odd creatures

They certainly are odd! It's just occurred to me that just as DD passes this stage the twins will start it. What have I done???

We had a 3.30 am start this morning . It is getting ridiculous, nothing we have tried has made any difference. Gro clock, early nap, later nap, shorter nap, no nap. If anything she is getting up earlier. TF it is a childminder day. Any ideas for what else we can try?